"An excellent book for beginning teachers, this work shows considerable insight and understanding of the real world of the schools and the daily issues and problems that new teachers will no doubt confront. It offers balanced and experienced perspective and helpful tips. I recommend this as a useful read for every new math instructor at the secondary level." - Greg A. Baugher, Mercer University, Georgia

About this book:
There are about 12,500 new math teachers who enter school classrooms each year. This is the audience for Letters to a Young Math Teacher. It is designed to help these young men and women who have chosen an important and demanding profession to meet the real world of the school and classroom.

Author, Gerald Rising stated, “What we have written in Letters To A Young Math Teacher is not a methods text. It is instead designed, separately from such texts, to assist the neophyte teacher as he or she enters the real world of the schools based on our own experiences in urban, rural and suburban schools and my additional decades of work with math teachers.”

“Contemporary methods texts do not address these problems. Instead they talk about the interpretation of mathematics content and the application of psychological principles to the design of instruction.”

“Student teaching only partly makes up for this. The organization and discipline of the classroom is that of the sponsoring teacher. And the teaching is mid-year, not at the more difficult time of school opening.”

Letters To A Young Math Teacher is modeled on E.O. Wilson's bestseller, Letters to a Young Scientist. While its target audience is different, its format is very similar.

Reader reviews:
"This book presents a holistic view of teaching that honors the complex and important work of math teachers. Novice teachers will find the information essential. Veteran teachers will reflect on their work and make some refinements." - Linda Levi, Director of Cognitively Guided Instruction Initiatives, Teachers Development Group and co-author of Children's Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction.

"My first year of teaching was a real struggle and nowadays beginners need all the help they can get. Gerald Rising is a champion at demystifying difficult circumstances by applying eloquent logic in recognizable contexts." - Patti Brosnan, Ohio State University

"As a just-retired math teacher with 35 years of experience, I had to provide myself a great deal of on-the-job training. I wish I had a book like this when, especially as a beginner, I needed it. I just read through the whole book, and I must say kudos on this final product! You have achieved what I had imagined needed to be there, and you did it much better than I ever could have. People are going to find this book useful!" - Cathy G. Schloemer, Indiana Area Senior High School, Indiana, PA

"My first year of teaching was a real struggle and nowadays beginners need all the help they can get. Gerald Rising and Ray Patenaude are champions at demystifying difficult circumstances by applying eloquent logic in recognizable contexts." - Patti Brosnan, Ohio State University

About the author:
Gerald Rising, Ph.D., State University of New York (SUNY) Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at the University at Buffalo, has been author or co-author of over a dozen textbooks and one hundred journal articles. Two of his recent books are: Program Your Calculator (William R. Parks, 2013) and Inside Your Calculator: From Simple Programs to Significant Insights (John Wiley, 2007). Professor Rising was a teacher and department chair in New York State high schools and then served as K-14 math coordinator in Norwalk, Connecticut. He was founder of the University at Buffalo's Gifted Math Program for high school students. Rising has also taught at the Universities of Rochester, Connecticut and Minnesota; New York and Cornell Universities; and Manchester University in England. A former National Council of Teachers of Mathematics board member, he has been a regular speaker at state and national meetings.